Installing Ubuntu 11.04 on a Acer 5742 Laptop

Just downloaded Ubuntu 11.04 onto my Acer 5742 laptop. 

I decided to copy the image to a portable HDD using UNetbootin instead of wasting a CD.

Booting from the portable HDD was ultra fast, ~10sec.

Upon booting it live, the mouse touchpad was not working, a external mouse was required to navigate.  This was not a issue after the install.

Installing was not a chore either, I chose to apply the updates as it installed.  This requires a internet connection.

 
Ubuntu downloaded the necessary binary blob for the f'ked Broadcom wireless module, i'm going to get rid of this soon, replacing it with a Atheros.

Ubuntu supports a new look called unity, getting used to the new look was too hard for me so I decided to change back to the Gnome classic look.  This can be accomplished if you log out and check the setting 'Gnome Classic' when you enter you password.

One of the best things about 11.04 is it finally has a file search that actually works good.  Yay!

Also it comes with Firefox4, its layout has changed slightly too.

All round the new Ubuntu is give the user more screen area which makes it overall appearance cleaner and much more trendy.

One thing that caught my eye was some program called Zeiteist Datahub which loaded on startup.  There is not much info about this on the net but what it does is it gathers info from the user and passes it to other programs to make usage more integrated.  If you are paranoid you may want to apt-get remove it.

Natty Narwhal, Price free and heaps better than Windows!